(Or should that be Moniseur Baleines?)
As I've asked a few questions about Quebec ahead of my trip, I thought it might be entertaining to share what I did and saw there.
Part I, The Coast of Saint Lawrence. at the conflunce with Saguenay river
It was almost noon, which was the time I set for myself to leave home, in order to make it to Montreal before it gets dark. But half of my stuff are still in piles in the garage instead of IN THE CAR! Problem being, the car looks to full already and I'm at a lost where to put the rest of the stuff into that little car of mine...
The kayak is on top, but the entire kayak gear (pfd, skirt, paddle, radio, gps...) took up half of the back seat. The rest of the back seat, were filled with camping gears. Mind you, I was once a backpacker and a lot of my camping gears are rather compact. But since I'll be camping for 5-6 days in the same spot, I thought I should include a bit of "comfort" items to make the stay more enjoyable, things like camp chair, tarp, and a cooler! Well, my first choice cooler took up too much room, it got "down sized" 3 times till I'm left with just a tiny one good for a couple of days worth of dinner.
The bike, I'd rather carry INSIDE the car, in the trunk for the long part of the drive. That left preciously little room for anything else. Hiking boots, biking shoes, camp shoes, they all got tossed in there.
The rest of the car was filled with clothing, camera, computer and chargers. I had to leave some of the things behind, one or two items that I would later deeply regret not having as the trip progress.
The drive:
The 5 hr drive to Montreal turned into 6 due to the nearly hr long wait at the border crossing. Gone are the days of crossing the border to have dinner at Montreal and back to camp in Placksburgh!
Thank god for GPS, or I'd never able to find the hotel I was to spend the night in the dark.
Next morning, onward to Tadussac at the mouth of the Sagueney river where it joins the Saint Lawrence. This is still familiar territory, Quebec City went by a couple hours later, without stopping. I have a rendeavour with some whales near Les Bergeronnes, at our campground!
A little past Quebec city, I stopped by a tourist office to grab some maps, and to refresh the cache of my phone's GPS. It's a bit expensive to turn on data service while in Canada. So I do the poor man's substitute by caching the maps of my day's destination from tourist offices' wifi. On leaving, I left my zipcode and casually asked "how far is Tadussac?" "4 hrs". Ouch, that's more than what google map had me to believe!
Beyond Quebec city, it's all 2 lane highway. Little villages every 10-15 miles. Cjharmig, but there's a lot of slowing down, getting through the villages. It actually only took 3 more hours to reach Tadussac. But the wait for the ferry to cross the Saguenay river was nearly an hour long!
By the time I pulled into the tourist office of Les Bergeronnes, I was beat from the nearly 15 hr on the road! God, this better be worth it!
Hello, Mr. Whale!
Bill, my paddling buddy, had arrived at the campground the night before. So he got us a nice site with view of the water. As he watched me setting up camp and making small talk. So I asked, did you go out paddle today? Yep! See any whales? Yep!
Really? That easy? Let's hope I have the same luck.
The tent is now up and I was throwing sleeping pad and sleeping bags in it when Bill said "There's a whale!"
I jumped out of the tent and look towards the water..."where?". "Oh, over that direction, just wait till he surface again". And sure enough, 30 seconds later, a faint black form emerge from the water, then a dorsal fin!
Wow!
That, was TOTALLY worth the 15 hr long drive!!!
As I've asked a few questions about Quebec ahead of my trip, I thought it might be entertaining to share what I did and saw there.
Part I, The Coast of Saint Lawrence. at the conflunce with Saguenay river
It was almost noon, which was the time I set for myself to leave home, in order to make it to Montreal before it gets dark. But half of my stuff are still in piles in the garage instead of IN THE CAR! Problem being, the car looks to full already and I'm at a lost where to put the rest of the stuff into that little car of mine...
The kayak is on top, but the entire kayak gear (pfd, skirt, paddle, radio, gps...) took up half of the back seat. The rest of the back seat, were filled with camping gears. Mind you, I was once a backpacker and a lot of my camping gears are rather compact. But since I'll be camping for 5-6 days in the same spot, I thought I should include a bit of "comfort" items to make the stay more enjoyable, things like camp chair, tarp, and a cooler! Well, my first choice cooler took up too much room, it got "down sized" 3 times till I'm left with just a tiny one good for a couple of days worth of dinner.
The bike, I'd rather carry INSIDE the car, in the trunk for the long part of the drive. That left preciously little room for anything else. Hiking boots, biking shoes, camp shoes, they all got tossed in there.
The rest of the car was filled with clothing, camera, computer and chargers. I had to leave some of the things behind, one or two items that I would later deeply regret not having as the trip progress.
The drive:
The 5 hr drive to Montreal turned into 6 due to the nearly hr long wait at the border crossing. Gone are the days of crossing the border to have dinner at Montreal and back to camp in Placksburgh!
Thank god for GPS, or I'd never able to find the hotel I was to spend the night in the dark.
Next morning, onward to Tadussac at the mouth of the Sagueney river where it joins the Saint Lawrence. This is still familiar territory, Quebec City went by a couple hours later, without stopping. I have a rendeavour with some whales near Les Bergeronnes, at our campground!
A little past Quebec city, I stopped by a tourist office to grab some maps, and to refresh the cache of my phone's GPS. It's a bit expensive to turn on data service while in Canada. So I do the poor man's substitute by caching the maps of my day's destination from tourist offices' wifi. On leaving, I left my zipcode and casually asked "how far is Tadussac?" "4 hrs". Ouch, that's more than what google map had me to believe!
Beyond Quebec city, it's all 2 lane highway. Little villages every 10-15 miles. Cjharmig, but there's a lot of slowing down, getting through the villages. It actually only took 3 more hours to reach Tadussac. But the wait for the ferry to cross the Saguenay river was nearly an hour long!
By the time I pulled into the tourist office of Les Bergeronnes, I was beat from the nearly 15 hr on the road! God, this better be worth it!
Hello, Mr. Whale!
Bill, my paddling buddy, had arrived at the campground the night before. So he got us a nice site with view of the water. As he watched me setting up camp and making small talk. So I asked, did you go out paddle today? Yep! See any whales? Yep!
Really? That easy? Let's hope I have the same luck.
The tent is now up and I was throwing sleeping pad and sleeping bags in it when Bill said "There's a whale!"
I jumped out of the tent and look towards the water..."where?". "Oh, over that direction, just wait till he surface again". And sure enough, 30 seconds later, a faint black form emerge from the water, then a dorsal fin!
Wow!
That, was TOTALLY worth the 15 hr long drive!!!
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